As winter techniques, numerous residence gardeners in Mediterranean and equivalent climates have a tendency to believe that the chores and duties connected with lawn care are more than for the yr, and that they can forget about lawn treatment until finally the following spring. Mowing is simple to see why, as most of the grass kinds used in such locations are dormant during the winter, whilst feeding and dethatching in the autumn seem to make small distinction to the lawn’s physical appearance at this time.
However, feeding, if carried out effectively, and dethatching exactly where suitable, support the lawn to get better faster and develop greater at the start of the subsequent year’s developing season. What then is right feeding when is dethatching essential, and how should it be done?
Garden Foods
Garden fertilizer utilized at the conclude of the summer season or the beginning of autumn, can have a comparatively high percentage of nitrogen, in buy to just take advantage of the remaining 6 months or so of increasing year, ahead of the onset of winter. The nearer to winter season however, the presence of obtainable nitrogen gets increasingly irrelevant. In equally situations though, it is best to use a garden fertilizer containing a high proportion of potassium, as this encourages satisfactory root improvement, whose benefits as mentioned, will be visible in the spring and assist in making a lawn that is hardier to pests, disease and drought.
The simplest strategy of feeding is to use a gradual release fertilizer. In the slide, the percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, expressed from left to right on the bundle as N-P-K, need to be reduced in nitrogen and phosphorous, (N and P respectively) but large in Potassium (K). Alternatively, a single can use an natural fertilizer, even though cumbersome natural matter, this kind of as compost, even though crucial for the relaxation of the garden, is less attractive for garden treatment, as it is tough to spread evenly, and is liable to exacerbate the thatch difficulty.
Dethatching Lawns
Taking away the thatch that has developed up through the summer time is one of the most crucial jobs in garden care and treatment method, specifically with several of the species utilized in hot, dry, summer time climates this sort of as Bermuda, Zoysia, and Kikuyu varieties. While many house gardeners are mindful that dethatching is important in the spring, less know that it is appealing in the autumn as well, as it substantially improves the charge at which rainwater percolates by way of the soil. It needs to be carried out significantly significantly less aggressively than in the spring, and only on people species that get better from the therapy. Great care need to be exercised with grasses like Buffalo, or St.Augustine, which can be irreparably ruined by in excess of-zealous dethatching.
More than Seeding Lawns
An outstanding way of greening up a perennial lawn that gets to be dormant in the wintertime is to above seed with a selection that grows well in the winter season, only to fade away by way of the summer season. For this objective, dethatching the garden prior to spreading the seeds, greatly aids in escalating the germination rate, which assists the lawn appear a lot fuller and greener via the winter season.
